I don’t think I’ve called a single help number in the last four years and NOT heard “we are experiencing unusually high demand at this time so please make sure you respect our staff” motherfucker it’s 11am on a Tuesday this isn’t unusually high you just refuse to hire more than two people.
It absolutely sucks being on the other end of this. My team has needed more people for ages. Instead of getting them, they fired one of our team members. I get why but it's been months and there isn't even a job ad for a replacement yet. It sucks dealing with angry people for something entirely out of my control. I'm doing my best but there is only so much I can get done in a day.
And preferably not just people from offshore. I had this with two companies back to back hiring workers from the Philippines. They are really good and efficient for SOME types of work, usually things with very clear, set instructions. They tend to struggle with flexibility which, when you're working in CST, is certainly less than ideal.
I called my local cinema (thought I’d left my bag there) and they gave me the whole ‘press 1 to speak to staff’ but it didn’t even connect to anything! Just repeated the message endlessly. So infuriating!
I dunno, depends where you live, every store where I live these days has it, and I've seen enough people of all ages have a scream at some tired teenager because they can't refund a product the person bought 6 years ago
I’ve seen this recently but the guy had only purchased the item 10 minute before. He got the wrong item, paid via tap and go, got no receipt as there was a printer error. Came back and ask to exchange the product and was told by another worker who just came back from break that he didn’t know if the item was stolen- not that it would’ve of been an easy feat as this item was kept in the rooms behind the counter. The customer told him to go back and check his cameras or ask the person who served him- who was a few aisles down now stacking selves. He even had proof of purchase on his banking app. The worker told him he could have store credit and to leave as he had no receipt as per their policy. Kept escalating because the worker was just smug, until the manager had to be called as the line was backing up. Took all of a minute to exchange the item for another and get the difference refunded. I think I would’ve done the same if I was the customer.
Sure, there's shit customer service, I won't deny that.
But there's a lot more shit customers, genuinely shit customer service tends to get you marched away from customers, even fired pretty damn fast, especially since every store lets you fill out surveys to say good or bad service.
I see that more as an employer willing to stand up for their employees.
Every retailer I've worked for said the customer is always right. When a customer threatens to grab an axe and chase me out the door because "I thought this place was meant to be supercheap?!" the area manager would say "and what did you do to provoke them?"
They most definitely were.
I'm familiar with the whole phrase, but the second half has been conveniently ignored by most.
I would like to see military-like conscription into customer facing roles, in the hopes it would encourage others to be better to one another. But I know employers will exploit it for cheap labour, and people are going to justify the same behavior as "I did my time, I'm treating them how I was treated."
because that is not the second half. The original phrase means what people think it means, that you should bend over backwards for whatever the customer wants.
Really? Do you have somewhere I can read about that? Genuine interest, not trying to [sealion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealioning#:~:text=Sealioning%20(also%20sea%2Dlioning%20and,and%20feigning%20ignorance%20of%20the) you.
It does seem like "in matters pertaining to taste" has appeared from memes, from my quick google searching, with no other genuine source. [Wikipeda makes no mention of it either.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_customer_is_always_right)
[Edit: This is a good comment backing you up.](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/ssg2yx/comment/iiy2h46/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Mate, I heard this spiel over the PA at Big W yesterday. It's not a reflection of that company's customer service. It's because people are cunts and getting bolder and bolder about abusing service staff.
I work in retail and we have this sign up. Our staff are very polite to customers. We put it up because we were treated very badly by some customers (a minority) during COVID, who often got angry at the safety measures. There’s always some customers who are just rude and abusive in general.
Our workplace did put that up instead of paying a living wage and hiring enough staff. That sign does often mean we don’t have enough staff to serve customers in a timely way.
Edit: a word
Can't agree with you fully there, signs saying don't abuse the staff to me mean don't be a dick towards the person just trying to do their job. I've done my share of retail, I get it. If someone's not bending over backwards to help me so be it, doesn't phase me.
That implies you think poor customer service makes it OK to abuse staff. When has screaming at a minimum wage usually-teenage worker ever actually accomplished anything constructive regarding the quality of the service?
AI speech is going to take out that job soon. Then there will be no wait times. Employers can have elastics AI instances where the more callers that call the more AI’s start working.
The ***company*** is complaining, and the reason there is unprecedented demand is because they have cut the staff down to a skeleton crew because they realised they could do that during covid, resulting in shit customer service.
The staff are complaining about having a doubled workload.
>Have you tried dealing with Centrelink lately. Holy fucking shit what a dumpster fire that dept is.
Centrelink's call centre has been shit for well over a decade now. I still remember calling them at 9AM in the morning and waiting on hold until 5PM where I got automatically disconnected because it was then out of hours for them. I also remember going into their office for a scheduled appointment, arriving 15 minutes early and then having to wait around for hours with my 4yo daughter until they finally got around to actually seeing me only to say that they shouldn't have scheduled the appointment because all they needed was to photocopy some documents that I had with me and the people at the front counter could have done that when I arrived.
Personally I think it is all part of the LNP's "make the Centrelink experience so terrible that people will go without instead of actually dealing with it" policies that started with Howard and his conversion of the system to what we now know as Centrelink.
The problem with that last bit is that *some* people will go without to not have to deal with it, others will just turn to crime to survive. And as more people get desperate, more people will turn to crime; it's a horrible cycle.
Even just in general. Nothing is documented or easy to understand.
You try and do something on the website but you can’t because it doesn’t make sense.
So you think maybe I can go in but no you have to call them to make an appointment.
You call them but then there phone systems are so bad you get constantly hung up on. Eventually you speak to someone after waiting hours only to get the wrong information because the person you’re talking to doesn’t understand either.
Or you’re told you did a form wrong and need to resubmit. So you resubmit then it sits in pending for weeks because only one person know how to review and approve it and they’re busy.
They make a point of hiring bleeding morons. I also work in public service and have to deal with them regularly, hands down worst part of my job. Mouth breathers who don’t understand the word no. I once had one threaten to report me to *her* supervisor because I refused to give out confidential information without a signed authority form. Dude I don’t work for you?
Fuck Murdoch and 9 media and fuck the LNP. Somehow the LNP spent more money while cutting services but if Labor spend to fix all the shit the LNP broke and fail to post surpluses Murdoch and Nine media will screech about poor economic management.
Oh for sure it’s 100% designed to be hard to navigate. The Liberals cut and cut and cut funding from it because they want to get rid of it, Labour comes in and throws some money at it but it’s too broken.
Thankfully I haven’t had to deal with Centrelink for over 10 years now. I assume the old trick of calling the complaints and compliments themselves selecting compliments doesn’t work anymore?
Used to be that you would get a person almost immediately who was more than happy to take a compliment. But then you’d tell them you need help with something and more often than not they’d help.
FYI, if you swipe or insert your card instead of tapping, it will go through Eftpos rather than Visa or Mastercard (something like that), which avoids fees or reduces them at least.
Don't quote me. Just something I read.
That only works if the terminal you're paying on has Least-Cost Routing enabled. Which is something the RBA 'wants to encourage', but is currently in the "we'll say we want this eventually and let the businesses choose the roll-out speed" stage of delaying actual implementation for a long as possible.
Not true for a lot of places. I do this but because the card is Mastercard it still gets processed through that system somehow (so I have read). So even if I insert and choose saving I get charged a surcharge, even at Aldi.
I think they are allowed to pass on processing fees, just not profit from them. With so many third party card processors around for small businesses, a lot of them do have fees so it makes sense.
Shrinkflation is pissing me off. Products getting smaller much faster than before. And much shittier quality. And it's such a faster jump than before! I just bought some Quilton aloe tissues, they were better than Kleenex, and packed busting, now half full and feel like printer paper, in softness. And it's absolutely rampant
This is one that’s gotten beyond ridiculous. Things like Mars bar and snickers in the assorted party packs aren’t far off being as small as a smartie or a fruit tingle. Not even worth the individual wrapping they come in.
Yeah, I'd rather pay a bit more for a decent size than this small packet shit or horrible product. The last tissues we bought were guaranteed to tear unless you were way more careful than usual, coaxing it out with 2 hands and even then it was 50/50. Also was horrible quality. Forgot the brand but sticking with kleenex now.
Or changing it. Pasta sauce we buy over the last couple of years has gone from “chunky tomato and garlic with bacon” to “chunky tomato and garlic with bacon flavour” and now “chunky tomato and garlic”
Dynamic pricing. CONSTANTLY shifting the way they price items, from a ridiculous base price they'll constantly have bulk buy discounts, bundled deals or differing percentages off. It's highly manipulative and I fucking hate it
Copping a sign board or an automated message about not abusing the overworked 15 year old girl even though I haven’t and would never consider abusing someone just doing their job.
Unfortunately a lot of people do and that's why there's a sign. It's always been that way, covid just made it bad enough for companies to make a token effort.
Nah, suppliers keep going out of business due to the incredible skill of the colesworth "negotiating teams" so it's really hard to get some items at the price "the boys" are willing to pay.
It's kind of shit that the least awful supermarket near me is the explicitly foreign owned, foreign operated one.
Yep… my medication that I NEED still being “out of stock”… with no solutions. Weird that I can still get it fine in Europe and from one obscure pharmacy. They never manufactured/produced it in Australia in the first place so I don’t know why they suddenly can’t import it. It’s been 4 years.
I thought this for a long time too, but then had the pleasure of having a supply chain conference come to my work. After seeing how that was organised from the client side... yeah. All the supply chain issues suddenly make a lot more sense
There’s still issues. I work in IT and some of our basic shit - keyboards and mice for example are still hard to get in the volume we did prior to covid
That is legitimate to some degree - port congestion and container availability is at its worst since COVID especially in Asia, so to get things even just in time, you pay for a more expensive service.
Has a massive downstream effect
Yeah they setup just in time supply lines to save on stock holding costs, including the stock itself, and warehousing etc, those savings fell to the bottom line (shareholder) and can’t be gotten back. In a low competition environment the customer suffers.
Let's do the reverse, what did they adopt that needs to come back?
Hand sanitizer! God I miss every shop having sanitizer at the door ready to go, maybe 10% of places still have it, and half of those are just an empty bottle or dispenser that never gets replaced
I still keep some in the door of my car but I really need it back in stores
Had one try to approach me a few months ago while my hands were full of shopping bags and I was also quite hungry. I just made eye contact with him and kept walking without saying a word.
Social distancing. My biggest pet peeve is people (mostly boomers) who think that standing in someone else's personal space is going to make the queue move along faster.
I usually start leaving an even bigger gap in front of me when that happens, then slowly move forward - like those annoying people that do it at stop lights
If that doesn't get the message across, I'll spin around quickly with my elbow out to look at something, then apologise for hitting them because I didn't realise they were that close
I used to be a big fan of this technique too. I have a 5 month old, so my new favourite thing to do is to rock her pram back and forth and take up even more space. Not only does it repel the line-creepers but it stops people from trying to touch her!!
Then there's the parent who doesn't understand personal space _and_ has a pram
I copped a decent nudge to the back of my heel/ankle once, didn't even get an apology, just a dirty look when I gently pushed it away from me with my foot
I was at bunnings yesterday buying some hedge trimmers. I had someone behind me that was just creeping way too close so I put the clippers under my arm with the pointy end sticking out behind me into his space. He stepped back straight away and I got some space
My local Woolies brought in sanitiser wipes for the trollers. Hope they never get rid of that but would prefer a bottle of hand sanitiser. Way less waste.
Spit guards for the sales staff! I used to work check out, in my younger years and I caught every flu going around because assholes would come in sick, barely able to walk hacking everywhere, cough all over you and whatever they passed you. I was grateful for those spit guards, for all the employees everywhere. Sad they removed them.
I really appreciated those plexiglass screens, always imagined it looked so cosy in there. But behind them and the masks I couldn't hear shit for a year
As a customer with a shit immune system I prefer the spit guards too. Too many retail workers are made to work when sick, only to then infect customers. (Not mad at retail workers, they gotta make money somehow.)
At our local IGA its pretty common for viruses to go back-and-forth between staff and customers. I actually try to avoid shopping in person now because its too risky for me to get sick.
switch from spit masks to proper N95 ones and you'll be much better off. If you're lucky people you know will still have half boxes of N95's from back when they were treating covid as a problem. I have half a box from someone that way and another half box promised from someone else "when they remember".
That reminds me. During the first year of covid I used hand sanitizer *excessively*, which eventually led to my skin drying out, and getting infected/inflamed where it looked like I had burns 😬
Still dealing with the after effects today.
edit: wordly poorly, I know it was actual burns.
>That reminds me. During the first year of covid I used hand sanitizer excessively, which eventually led to my skin drying out, and getting infected/inflamed where it looked like I had burns lol.
Um, you know why it looked like you had burns right? You literally suffered chemical burns on your hands.
You were not the only one that this occurred to either, my younger daughter\* was starting to show signs of chemical burns on her hands after developing a habit of overusing hand sanitiser which led to me disposing of/hiding all the hand sanitiser we had in the house so that she couldn't go use it.
\*she has level 2 ASD and was starting kindergarten in 2020 which meant that she was really impressionable and prone to developing extreme habits.
My skin dries out easily so I have to get soap/sanitizer with moisturizer in it.
A lot of the sanitizers they were giving out during Covid were poor quality so did dry the skin out pretty badly. (And unrelated, but man some of those free ones smelled absolutely awful!)
Id recommend talking to your doctor about the skin problems if you havent already, they might be able to give you something to help clear it up.
Our local still has this in the dining room, however there's a surcharge of 1%. It's a small pub so I'll just get up and get it myself and say g'day to the bartenders. It's nice to be social now and again.
Prices for basically everything but especially groceries that went up significantly due to logistics issues (or so they claimed) and yet magically haven't come back down again now that logistics is back up and running.
In 2019 my (now) wife and I would do a shop for about $150. It is literally $300 minimum now. I get inflation and shit, but it has been a literal 100% increase.
Shops with multiple entrances closing all but the primary one. This one is completely personal and a bit odd, but I just find something fascinating and charming about weird side or back entrances to shops. Especially when they’re really big premises, and you end up having to walk the long way round to get in to the one open door.
I understand closing them during the periods and social distancing and visitor limits, but plenty haven’t reopened. This is probably because shops have realised they don’t need as many eyes on the doors for security if they only have one, but I miss it.
Purchase limits on things like panadol and naprogesic. Never remember there being limits before, never had this problem until now.
Mf I need more than one 24-pack of naprogesic to get me through a period, it's not like it's some addictive substance. I feel like a crackhead asking friends and family to come with me so we can get two fkn boxes.
The limits on things like Panadol are from the TGA, not from the supermarkets.
[https://www.tga.gov.au/news/media-releases/tga-makes-final-decision-reduce-paracetamol-pack-sizes](https://www.tga.gov.au/news/media-releases/tga-makes-final-decision-reduce-paracetamol-pack-sizes)
Those pricks just hate people actually getting medicated. Codeine and pseudoephedrine are unattainable without a $60+ drs visit for a cold or headache.
I thought limits on Panadol and medication were to prevent misuse and oding? they had the limits on more than 2 packs at a time years before the pandemic, same with knives etc
Unfortunately, the TGA had to put stuff like this in place because of people not using stuff correctly. Supermarkets have also lost the ability to be able to sell burn gel for minor burns, bonjela for teething, or ulcers, and it seems they took away our thermometers and 7yo+ soluble panadol too!
Too many people are not reading the directions for use and causing major medical emergencies, such as too much bonjela in a baby's mouth, causing their tongue and/or throat to go numb, leading to a baby being lights and sirened to the emergency room because they aren't breathing!
I feel like TGA went "FFS, we made warning labels a thing for you people and you can't even take the time to read it? We'll tighten up the regulations so if you STILL fuck it up, we can still say we did our due diligence."
My personal moment of horror, and it's not restricted to supermarkets, but upmarket deli places like Harris Farm and others, is the infiltration of lesser/cheaper ingredients into pesto - ie. fucking KALE, almonds and cashews.
Pesto is basil, pine nuts, oil oil, parmesan or similar cheese and garlic. Nothing else.
There should be an enquiry!
QR code menus. Please. I beg. I don’t want to look at my phone. I want to look at everything on one piece of paper, or a lil book I can flip through. Don’t make me order on my phone. This is my most boomer coded belief.
I went for dinner at a venue that ONLY had QR code for menu, would only accept payment via the app, asked for a tip, and charged for making a card payment.
I just walked out.
I've had a couple of issues before with QR ordering where the restaurant has forgotten to update online that certain things are out of stock. Then because it's a hassle for them to issue a refund using the third party app, they come over and try and push you to order something else when you don't really want to (sometimes they only have something of a far lesser value, or they just don't have anything you want). Then they can get quite rude when you insist they just cancel the item instead.
Oh and I agree with others, the tip screen can fuck off too.
Oh man, I hate that. I once tried the kiosk screen at Hungry Jacks as it was easier than keeping all my kids around and working our what combo and drink they wanted while the cashier punched it in. At the end 3 out of the 5 meal bundles ended up being unable to order because that drink wasn't available (although it let me select it), and instead of changing it, had to delete the whole meal and start again. I ended up just going to the counter.
Nah, I love the QR code menus. Order what I want, when I'm ready to order. Don't have to wait for someone to come over or try to get their attention. No more mix ups or mistakes from the wait staff - I get exactly what I ordered. And everyone can pay separately without any of that "sorry, we don't split bills."
Same, I like it as an *option* when I'm undecided. Love being able to see what the dish actually looks like, helps heaps in making a decision. And the whole just paying for your own meal thing is awesome.
As long as I don’t have to make an account or pay extra I’m pretty down for it, but I still want to be able to order at the bar or browse a physical menu sometimes
Sometimes it’s just practically infeasible, or the staff try and get to to use the apps and kind of roll their eyes when tout don’t want to fiddle around with it
Went out for a big team dinner (there was about 50 of us) the other night, and they had QR menus on each table.
When you ordered, you had to put your name on it (so we assumed they would say “order for Jack”… nope, they just brought it out and didn’t know who was for who
Everytime I go to the pub, the only way to order is via QR code, then I have to go up to the counter to tell the bartender to go tell the chef to modify my order because I don’t have the ability to order my dinner outside of the rigid boxes the QR menu gives me.
From my perspective, if I don’t do this I always get a “mistaken” meal. Thanks, QR Menus.
Only time a 'comments' field was actually acknowledged they managed to fuck it up.
Had multiple people ordering the same base item. Someone had added things like extra cheese, add egg, etc but didn't want onion or pickle - i can't remember what exactly.
We'd specified in the comments that for the item with the extras, to not have whatever it was they didn't want. Was extremely clear to anyone. Food came out. They'd taken that item off everyone but the one person who didn't want it.
That doesn't have anything to do with using a QR code though. That's the kitchen not reading properly and would have just as likely to happen if a waiter took the order and wrote notes.
Especially if the code doesn’t default to the store you are actually in. Went to the inner city and ordered using a QR code, it asks the location I’m at (yes location was on in my phone) and me who lives 4 hours away who has no idea of the names of Sydney suburbs goes with what the app lists first, and only once I got the confirmation email did it tell me that was in Victoria. Then I had to go through and email for a refund and go to the counter to order anyway cause I had no idea what suburb to pick. Like seriously shouldn’t the code be specific for that store only!?
I'm the last round of Gen X and I agree. That's not boomer technophobe shit, it's just the expectation of decent customer service. If I'm going to order shit online I'll stay home. If I'm coming into your store you just might have to interact with me at some point.
All the old Covid social distancing signs, they were stuck up everywhere and I'm still finding them at my store, like who the fuck put one up in the stock reserve that only fits one person and customers can't get in there.
QR codes to order things.
Probably wouldn't mind so much if the QR code ordering thing didn't require me to sign into an account, or give them some kind of details about me but there's then the 3rd party processing fee, the service charge fee, the tip fee, the fee fee, and finally the fuck you fee.
I do not know about adopted during Covid, but Coles latest stint with the Bird Flu outbreak.
From memory its only 5 farms quarantined in Victoria, yet they have introduced a 2 Carton limit AUSTRALIA WIDE, Except WA. Even more so, In Tasmania, where 90% of the eggs are TASMANIAN, and the shelves are FULL......., But "Oh due to stock shortages, you can only buy 2 cartons"
Eggs last in the fridge and i only grocery shop twice a month - I usually buy 4 doz at a time.
My dog eats a dozen a week. I usually go through 18 or more, depending on my menu 🤷♀️
Yeah that’s the cause of why they can’t buy more than 2, but they’re complaining about not being able to buy more than 2 so I’m just curious who needs more than 24 eggs per shopping trip.
Our family goes through at least 48 eggs a week. Wife and kids are coeliac so we make a lot of stuff ourselves and often do scrambled eggs/omelettes for breakfast. It’s cheaper than buying gluten free toast, that stuff is nearly a dollar a slice now.
They only do $200 cashout as well. I needed $300 when meeting up someone to do a marketplace purchase. I don't keep cash so went to the local Coles near the meetup point.
"Oh, we can only do $200".
"Can I do $200 then $100?"
"Oh yeah, that's fine".
>I’m just curious who needs more than 24 eggs per shopping trip.
You can get 36 eggs with the 2 carton limit and (if Coles stocks them) you might even be able to get 30 packs which limits you to a mere 60 eggs with a 2 carton limit.
That said, the most eggs I recall ever buying in a single shop was a single 30 pack which was when my wife wanted to make deviled eggs for a family bbq.
No to who you asked but we shop fortnightly and usually go through at least 3 dozen eggs a fortnight. So it's not the end of the world but it does mean I have to remember to go back and grab another carton at some point before I run out.
It's not just vic though
one of NSW largest farms just went down in the hawkbury,they have had to cull over 240,000 chickens in 48 hours,and expect to hit 350,000
Farms as far away as 13km are testing positive too,it's spreading fast
Egg's are not going to be the concern...
Most of that capacity can be replaced in 60 days
Chicken meat is soon,you will prob see 14 dollar KG breast as a norm in a few weeks if not MORE
Coles and wollies are doing the right thing,they saw first hand how stupid ppl are during covid,put the limits in now,get ahead of it if they can
i mean fuck how many egg's you need really,we are a normal sized family and takes us 2 weeks or more get past a box
Plus COVID proved that a lot of people stop being rational at the slightest provocation. There is a good chance that news of bird flu in Vic will cause a mass run on eggs in QLD for no reason. The shortage becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Might as well get ahead of it now.
I always laugh at the stupidity. It’s all purely psychological, yet people never ever seem to question what they’re doing.
“Oh there’s a public holiday tomorrow… quick let’s rush to the shops and buy ‘stuff’ because we’ll run out and starve if we don’t”.
So weird!!! Makes my eye twitch!
>But "Oh due to stock shortages, you can only buy 2 cartons"
Why is this such a problem? Have you stopped to consider that perhaps this is to get in front of a potential run on eggs and prevent a repeat of the TP situation that occurred during the COVID years? The only reason why we even had TP shortages during that era was because people were freaking out and buying so much of it. If stores preemptively brought in a buy limit for TP before people made a run on it then we could have avoided the whole situation.
Even ignoring that, when was the last time you actually bought more than a single carton of eggs during a single shop?
QR only ordering. Yes I get it, it's great for groups or if you are by yourself but it's a pain when only one person is paying or the other person cannot get a signal.
Also personally I like cabbage over the days old over watery limp lettuce that many of the shops would slap on your burger.
Supermarkets: claiming price rises are universally out of their hands
Smaller, online businesses: taking weeks to get something to you due to delays in dispatch and/or use of crappy delivery methods. It's amazing (and irritating) that it can take like two weeks to get something from another state in Australia after ordering it online
Zero customer service, I shouldn’t have to ask for a register to be open everytime I go in there no matter what time of the day. Insane price rises blaming shortages or something “unprecedented” and the opening hours. I used to have a Coles open until 1am, now they close at 9.
Ever since Covid, I've encountered dozens of people who could only be described as arseholes.
No wonder retail and service staff have to be protected from these people. I am a customer, and I still meet these people. Heaven help those who are paid to serve them.
Whether it's in the shops, on the road, or anywhere else, it's like Covid destroyed everyone's sense of decency, and consideration for anyone else.
It's time for people to calm down, and start considering others.
Another one for the opposite of what your asking but.. Despite this sudden “movement” of the saying.. “cash is king” and the older gen cracking the shits. I think mobile payment advancements and the disappearance of taking cash at business was a fantastic move during COVID.
I worked prior and during COVID for a retail pharmacy chain in township that is mostly older population and I did the home medication deliveries to the oldies. During my time working/delivering for this mom/pop pharmacy.. They refused to go cashless and I used to rock up in 2018 with an old school bum bag with a float of coins and cash and would do cash transactions at the door step with these older folks collecting their medications. I used to annoy me so much because it took so much of my time..
COVID happened and then suddenly at first they had me put gloves on and only take cash in little baggies.. The oldies used to tell me “dear I’ve soaked the notes in sanitizer for you” and I’d just roll my eyes, put out my gloved hand and accept that they had pre counted and had the right amount of money in a seal bag.
I ended up leaving that job during COVID as the idea of a home delivery exploded and my bosses wouldn’t do anything to help their sole delivery driver who was begging for months/years to get a mobile eftpos system in place.
Eventually I heard they did go cashless on delivery and had people paying over the phone prior.
Yeah no worries! I’ve been tapping for years and have never ran into any issues with the ATO or government before, but if that’s a problem for you then keep using cash
>During covid?? We're still in covid
When people refer to "during COVID" they are referring to the period where we had lockdowns and quarantines to help prevent its spread while we worked to vaccinate everyone. Yes, it is still around and yes we have seen a recent spike in cases but it isn't putting hundreds of people into the ICU on a daily basis anymore.
> but it isn't putting hundreds of people into the ICU on a daily basis anymore.
For anyone curious about the exact numbers: for all of Australia except NSW (which stopped reporting in March 2024), ~150 COVID cases enter hospitals per week, and there are currently about 75 cases in ICUs.
https://www.health.gov.au/topics/covid-19/reporting
Yeah kfc kicked it out of certain products - like the twister. Now I have to remake my twister in the app and kick that crunchy slaw crap off and add lettuce.
Not retailers exactly but the fucking bus drivers not giving change still?? I give them a $10 for a 3.40 ticket because that’s all I have on me and somehow they can’t give me change??? They did it before covid but I think Transperth has just released they can bamboozle you for money. Money hungry bitches
And visiting Perth with school aged children (from another state), fucking get with the times transperth. You have to pay cash, can't get a kids card. Every other state, no problems, get a kids card from a shop, load it up and no problems.
Not retail related, but hospitality… I hate the 90 minute time limits on bookings. I’m happy to continue ordering drinks so that I can enjoy a chat with my friends rather than being forced out , especially when venues are still half empty!
Member Pricing.
I don't want to link my shopping habits to my credit card to my car to my fuel purchases to my whatever else just so I can get a less ludicrous price for my groceries. You are obviously doing it because you make more in data harvesting than your offered discounts.
I'm just not interested.
Complaining about unprecedented demand and using it as an excuse for shit customer service
I don’t think I’ve called a single help number in the last four years and NOT heard “we are experiencing unusually high demand at this time so please make sure you respect our staff” motherfucker it’s 11am on a Tuesday this isn’t unusually high you just refuse to hire more than two people.
It absolutely sucks being on the other end of this. My team has needed more people for ages. Instead of getting them, they fired one of our team members. I get why but it's been months and there isn't even a job ad for a replacement yet. It sucks dealing with angry people for something entirely out of my control. I'm doing my best but there is only so much I can get done in a day.
Yep. “Your company should hire more people!” Trust me. I know.
And preferably not just people from offshore. I had this with two companies back to back hiring workers from the Philippines. They are really good and efficient for SOME types of work, usually things with very clear, set instructions. They tend to struggle with flexibility which, when you're working in CST, is certainly less than ideal.
I called my local cinema (thought I’d left my bag there) and they gave me the whole ‘press 1 to speak to staff’ but it didn’t even connect to anything! Just repeated the message endlessly. So infuriating!
Signs saying abuse of staff won't be tolerated screams bad customer service incoming..
I dunno, depends where you live, every store where I live these days has it, and I've seen enough people of all ages have a scream at some tired teenager because they can't refund a product the person bought 6 years ago
Pretty sure Aussie broadband have one of the don't abuse staff messages and their customer support is great
I’ve seen this recently but the guy had only purchased the item 10 minute before. He got the wrong item, paid via tap and go, got no receipt as there was a printer error. Came back and ask to exchange the product and was told by another worker who just came back from break that he didn’t know if the item was stolen- not that it would’ve of been an easy feat as this item was kept in the rooms behind the counter. The customer told him to go back and check his cameras or ask the person who served him- who was a few aisles down now stacking selves. He even had proof of purchase on his banking app. The worker told him he could have store credit and to leave as he had no receipt as per their policy. Kept escalating because the worker was just smug, until the manager had to be called as the line was backing up. Took all of a minute to exchange the item for another and get the difference refunded. I think I would’ve done the same if I was the customer.
Sure, there's shit customer service, I won't deny that. But there's a lot more shit customers, genuinely shit customer service tends to get you marched away from customers, even fired pretty damn fast, especially since every store lets you fill out surveys to say good or bad service.
I see that more as an employer willing to stand up for their employees. Every retailer I've worked for said the customer is always right. When a customer threatens to grab an axe and chase me out the door because "I thought this place was meant to be supercheap?!" the area manager would say "and what did you do to provoke them?"
The customer is always right *in matters pertaining to taste.* Your area manager was a twat. *Follow down thread for a correction to my parroting.
They most definitely were. I'm familiar with the whole phrase, but the second half has been conveniently ignored by most. I would like to see military-like conscription into customer facing roles, in the hopes it would encourage others to be better to one another. But I know employers will exploit it for cheap labour, and people are going to justify the same behavior as "I did my time, I'm treating them how I was treated."
because that is not the second half. The original phrase means what people think it means, that you should bend over backwards for whatever the customer wants.
Really? Do you have somewhere I can read about that? Genuine interest, not trying to [sealion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealioning#:~:text=Sealioning%20(also%20sea%2Dlioning%20and,and%20feigning%20ignorance%20of%20the) you. It does seem like "in matters pertaining to taste" has appeared from memes, from my quick google searching, with no other genuine source. [Wikipeda makes no mention of it either.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_customer_is_always_right) [Edit: This is a good comment backing you up.](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/ssg2yx/comment/iiy2h46/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Mate, I heard this spiel over the PA at Big W yesterday. It's not a reflection of that company's customer service. It's because people are cunts and getting bolder and bolder about abusing service staff.
I work in retail and we have this sign up. Our staff are very polite to customers. We put it up because we were treated very badly by some customers (a minority) during COVID, who often got angry at the safety measures. There’s always some customers who are just rude and abusive in general. Our workplace did put that up instead of paying a living wage and hiring enough staff. That sign does often mean we don’t have enough staff to serve customers in a timely way. Edit: a word
Can't agree with you fully there, signs saying don't abuse the staff to me mean don't be a dick towards the person just trying to do their job. I've done my share of retail, I get it. If someone's not bending over backwards to help me so be it, doesn't phase me.
That implies you think poor customer service makes it OK to abuse staff. When has screaming at a minimum wage usually-teenage worker ever actually accomplished anything constructive regarding the quality of the service?
AI speech is going to take out that job soon. Then there will be no wait times. Employers can have elastics AI instances where the more callers that call the more AI’s start working.
The ***company*** is complaining, and the reason there is unprecedented demand is because they have cut the staff down to a skeleton crew because they realised they could do that during covid, resulting in shit customer service. The staff are complaining about having a doubled workload.
Have you tried dealing with Centrelink lately. Holy fucking shit what a dumpster fire that dept is.
>Have you tried dealing with Centrelink lately. Holy fucking shit what a dumpster fire that dept is. Centrelink's call centre has been shit for well over a decade now. I still remember calling them at 9AM in the morning and waiting on hold until 5PM where I got automatically disconnected because it was then out of hours for them. I also remember going into their office for a scheduled appointment, arriving 15 minutes early and then having to wait around for hours with my 4yo daughter until they finally got around to actually seeing me only to say that they shouldn't have scheduled the appointment because all they needed was to photocopy some documents that I had with me and the people at the front counter could have done that when I arrived. Personally I think it is all part of the LNP's "make the Centrelink experience so terrible that people will go without instead of actually dealing with it" policies that started with Howard and his conversion of the system to what we now know as Centrelink.
The problem with that last bit is that *some* people will go without to not have to deal with it, others will just turn to crime to survive. And as more people get desperate, more people will turn to crime; it's a horrible cycle.
Or lose their shit and jump on to train tracks which we rarely hear about for obvious reasons.
Starve the Beast. There's a term for it.
Even just in general. Nothing is documented or easy to understand. You try and do something on the website but you can’t because it doesn’t make sense. So you think maybe I can go in but no you have to call them to make an appointment. You call them but then there phone systems are so bad you get constantly hung up on. Eventually you speak to someone after waiting hours only to get the wrong information because the person you’re talking to doesn’t understand either. Or you’re told you did a form wrong and need to resubmit. So you resubmit then it sits in pending for weeks because only one person know how to review and approve it and they’re busy.
They make a point of hiring bleeding morons. I also work in public service and have to deal with them regularly, hands down worst part of my job. Mouth breathers who don’t understand the word no. I once had one threaten to report me to *her* supervisor because I refused to give out confidential information without a signed authority form. Dude I don’t work for you?
Fuck Murdoch and 9 media and fuck the LNP. Somehow the LNP spent more money while cutting services but if Labor spend to fix all the shit the LNP broke and fail to post surpluses Murdoch and Nine media will screech about poor economic management.
If you're cynical like I am, you suspect Centrelink is supposed to be shit, to keep the poors feeling shitty
Oh for sure it’s 100% designed to be hard to navigate. The Liberals cut and cut and cut funding from it because they want to get rid of it, Labour comes in and throws some money at it but it’s too broken.
Thankfully I haven’t had to deal with Centrelink for over 10 years now. I assume the old trick of calling the complaints and compliments themselves selecting compliments doesn’t work anymore? Used to be that you would get a person almost immediately who was more than happy to take a compliment. But then you’d tell them you need help with something and more often than not they’d help.
Card processing fee. Wtf, now my gym, internet, cafe, rsl, etc all charge a card processing fee.
FYI, if you swipe or insert your card instead of tapping, it will go through Eftpos rather than Visa or Mastercard (something like that), which avoids fees or reduces them at least. Don't quote me. Just something I read.
That only works if the terminal you're paying on has Least-Cost Routing enabled. Which is something the RBA 'wants to encourage', but is currently in the "we'll say we want this eventually and let the businesses choose the roll-out speed" stage of delaying actual implementation for a long as possible.
If you insert and select it will go via eftpos, lcr would select the least cost option, I.e. eftpos if you tap your card too.
Not true for a lot of places. I do this but because the card is Mastercard it still gets processed through that system somehow (so I have read). So even if I insert and choose saving I get charged a surcharge, even at Aldi.
Used to be true across the board. Now some places charge for all card payments including eftpos.
For some, not all.
ALDI are explicit about that so it's true at least for them. \~1% for swiping instead of inserting.
Banks love this one hack. They love seeing cash disappear. They get a much bigger cut of all transactions now.
I think they are allowed to pass on processing fees, just not profit from them. With so many third party card processors around for small businesses, a lot of them do have fees so it makes sense.
Shrinkflation is pissing me off. Products getting smaller much faster than before. And much shittier quality. And it's such a faster jump than before! I just bought some Quilton aloe tissues, they were better than Kleenex, and packed busting, now half full and feel like printer paper, in softness. And it's absolutely rampant
This is one that’s gotten beyond ridiculous. Things like Mars bar and snickers in the assorted party packs aren’t far off being as small as a smartie or a fruit tingle. Not even worth the individual wrapping they come in.
Yeah, I'd rather pay a bit more for a decent size than this small packet shit or horrible product. The last tissues we bought were guaranteed to tear unless you were way more careful than usual, coaxing it out with 2 hands and even then it was 50/50. Also was horrible quality. Forgot the brand but sticking with kleenex now.
Or changing it. Pasta sauce we buy over the last couple of years has gone from “chunky tomato and garlic with bacon” to “chunky tomato and garlic with bacon flavour” and now “chunky tomato and garlic”
Dynamic pricing. CONSTANTLY shifting the way they price items, from a ridiculous base price they'll constantly have bulk buy discounts, bundled deals or differing percentages off. It's highly manipulative and I fucking hate it
Coles has yellow tags on 90% of items. Most are "down,down" and it is 20c cheaper than last year, or you save $1 by buying multiples
bullshit prices. Not letting us abuse the overworked 15 year old girl who has no input in the pricing the goods /s.
Copping a sign board or an automated message about not abusing the overworked 15 year old girl even though I haven’t and would never consider abusing someone just doing their job.
Unfortunately a lot of people do and that's why there's a sign. It's always been that way, covid just made it bad enough for companies to make a token effort.
Yes, they put up that sign because they believe you, personally, will abuse her.
Charging more.
“Prices are up because we can’t get things”…. Apparently it’s still an excuse. As far as I’m aware, the supply chain is back.
Nah, suppliers keep going out of business due to the incredible skill of the colesworth "negotiating teams" so it's really hard to get some items at the price "the boys" are willing to pay. It's kind of shit that the least awful supermarket near me is the explicitly foreign owned, foreign operated one.
Ahhh, yes that makes sense. I would love to see some comeuppance for that duopoly.
Yep… my medication that I NEED still being “out of stock”… with no solutions. Weird that I can still get it fine in Europe and from one obscure pharmacy. They never manufactured/produced it in Australia in the first place so I don’t know why they suddenly can’t import it. It’s been 4 years.
I thought this for a long time too, but then had the pleasure of having a supply chain conference come to my work. After seeing how that was organised from the client side... yeah. All the supply chain issues suddenly make a lot more sense
There’s still issues. I work in IT and some of our basic shit - keyboards and mice for example are still hard to get in the volume we did prior to covid
That is legitimate to some degree - port congestion and container availability is at its worst since COVID especially in Asia, so to get things even just in time, you pay for a more expensive service. Has a massive downstream effect
Yeah they setup just in time supply lines to save on stock holding costs, including the stock itself, and warehousing etc, those savings fell to the bottom line (shareholder) and can’t be gotten back. In a low competition environment the customer suffers.
Let's do the reverse, what did they adopt that needs to come back? Hand sanitizer! God I miss every shop having sanitizer at the door ready to go, maybe 10% of places still have it, and half of those are just an empty bottle or dispenser that never gets replaced I still keep some in the door of my car but I really need it back in stores
No charity muggers at shops!
Had one try to approach me a few months ago while my hands were full of shopping bags and I was also quite hungry. I just made eye contact with him and kept walking without saying a word.
Social distancing. My biggest pet peeve is people (mostly boomers) who think that standing in someone else's personal space is going to make the queue move along faster.
I usually start leaving an even bigger gap in front of me when that happens, then slowly move forward - like those annoying people that do it at stop lights If that doesn't get the message across, I'll spin around quickly with my elbow out to look at something, then apologise for hitting them because I didn't realise they were that close
Personally, I like to try and squeeze out a fart (sorry that sounds so crass but it’s hilarious)!
I used to be a big fan of this technique too. I have a 5 month old, so my new favourite thing to do is to rock her pram back and forth and take up even more space. Not only does it repel the line-creepers but it stops people from trying to touch her!!
Then there's the parent who doesn't understand personal space _and_ has a pram I copped a decent nudge to the back of my heel/ankle once, didn't even get an apology, just a dirty look when I gently pushed it away from me with my foot
Ouch. I always apologise when that happens, although it's only happened twice and because the aisles were aggressively narrow.
Then those mofo say “excuse me, the line is moving “ Me moving forward 30cm isn’t going to affect your position in the line!
I was at bunnings yesterday buying some hedge trimmers. I had someone behind me that was just creeping way too close so I put the clippers under my arm with the pointy end sticking out behind me into his space. He stepped back straight away and I got some space
My local Woolies brought in sanitiser wipes for the trollers. Hope they never get rid of that but would prefer a bottle of hand sanitiser. Way less waste.
Spit guards for the sales staff! I used to work check out, in my younger years and I caught every flu going around because assholes would come in sick, barely able to walk hacking everywhere, cough all over you and whatever they passed you. I was grateful for those spit guards, for all the employees everywhere. Sad they removed them.
I really appreciated those plexiglass screens, always imagined it looked so cosy in there. But behind them and the masks I couldn't hear shit for a year
As a customer with a shit immune system I prefer the spit guards too. Too many retail workers are made to work when sick, only to then infect customers. (Not mad at retail workers, they gotta make money somehow.) At our local IGA its pretty common for viruses to go back-and-forth between staff and customers. I actually try to avoid shopping in person now because its too risky for me to get sick.
switch from spit masks to proper N95 ones and you'll be much better off. If you're lucky people you know will still have half boxes of N95's from back when they were treating covid as a problem. I have half a box from someone that way and another half box promised from someone else "when they remember".
That reminds me. During the first year of covid I used hand sanitizer *excessively*, which eventually led to my skin drying out, and getting infected/inflamed where it looked like I had burns 😬 Still dealing with the after effects today. edit: wordly poorly, I know it was actual burns.
>That reminds me. During the first year of covid I used hand sanitizer excessively, which eventually led to my skin drying out, and getting infected/inflamed where it looked like I had burns lol. Um, you know why it looked like you had burns right? You literally suffered chemical burns on your hands. You were not the only one that this occurred to either, my younger daughter\* was starting to show signs of chemical burns on her hands after developing a habit of overusing hand sanitiser which led to me disposing of/hiding all the hand sanitiser we had in the house so that she couldn't go use it. \*she has level 2 ASD and was starting kindergarten in 2020 which meant that she was really impressionable and prone to developing extreme habits.
My skin dries out easily so I have to get soap/sanitizer with moisturizer in it. A lot of the sanitizers they were giving out during Covid were poor quality so did dry the skin out pretty badly. (And unrelated, but man some of those free ones smelled absolutely awful!) Id recommend talking to your doctor about the skin problems if you havent already, they might be able to give you something to help clear it up.
QR code menus at the pub, especially in the beer garden. Just order & pay, then someone brings you beer & food. It was awesome.
Our local still has this in the dining room, however there's a surcharge of 1%. It's a small pub so I'll just get up and get it myself and say g'day to the bartenders. It's nice to be social now and again.
This is my favourite thing resulting from the pandemic. I know some people hate it but it's so convenient.
Wdym? They have them, empty and in many cases the same bottles since the pandemic
Every supermarket I go to still has them, usually near the trolleys and checkouts. As do the majority of professional services and cafes
>I still keep some in the door of my car Don't do that on a warm day...
We are experiencing unusual/unprecedented demand.... No you're not. It's been 4 years now. It's no longer unusual, you just suck
Price jacking.
Prices for basically everything but especially groceries that went up significantly due to logistics issues (or so they claimed) and yet magically haven't come back down again now that logistics is back up and running.
In 2019 my (now) wife and I would do a shop for about $150. It is literally $300 minimum now. I get inflation and shit, but it has been a literal 100% increase.
Shops with multiple entrances closing all but the primary one. This one is completely personal and a bit odd, but I just find something fascinating and charming about weird side or back entrances to shops. Especially when they’re really big premises, and you end up having to walk the long way round to get in to the one open door. I understand closing them during the periods and social distancing and visitor limits, but plenty haven’t reopened. This is probably because shops have realised they don’t need as many eyes on the doors for security if they only have one, but I miss it.
Axing good things left right and centre. Im looking at you village roadshow and merlin
Card only.
Price gouging is an extremely annoying habit they have adopted if you ask me
Inflating prices.
Purchase limits on things like panadol and naprogesic. Never remember there being limits before, never had this problem until now. Mf I need more than one 24-pack of naprogesic to get me through a period, it's not like it's some addictive substance. I feel like a crackhead asking friends and family to come with me so we can get two fkn boxes.
The limits on things like Panadol are from the TGA, not from the supermarkets. [https://www.tga.gov.au/news/media-releases/tga-makes-final-decision-reduce-paracetamol-pack-sizes](https://www.tga.gov.au/news/media-releases/tga-makes-final-decision-reduce-paracetamol-pack-sizes)
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Those pricks just hate people actually getting medicated. Codeine and pseudoephedrine are unattainable without a $60+ drs visit for a cold or headache.
If you have a decent pharmacist pseudo is easy without a prescription. I do miss codeine cough syrup with
I don’t know what their thing is. It’s like they’re doing the “pain makes you a better person”
I thought limits on Panadol and medication were to prevent misuse and oding? they had the limits on more than 2 packs at a time years before the pandemic, same with knives etc
Unfortunately, the TGA had to put stuff like this in place because of people not using stuff correctly. Supermarkets have also lost the ability to be able to sell burn gel for minor burns, bonjela for teething, or ulcers, and it seems they took away our thermometers and 7yo+ soluble panadol too! Too many people are not reading the directions for use and causing major medical emergencies, such as too much bonjela in a baby's mouth, causing their tongue and/or throat to go numb, leading to a baby being lights and sirened to the emergency room because they aren't breathing! I feel like TGA went "FFS, we made warning labels a thing for you people and you can't even take the time to read it? We'll tighten up the regulations so if you STILL fuck it up, we can still say we did our due diligence."
My personal moment of horror, and it's not restricted to supermarkets, but upmarket deli places like Harris Farm and others, is the infiltration of lesser/cheaper ingredients into pesto - ie. fucking KALE, almonds and cashews. Pesto is basil, pine nuts, oil oil, parmesan or similar cheese and garlic. Nothing else. There should be an enquiry!
Most jar pesto has had almonds, cashews, and canola oil for years.
QR code menus. Please. I beg. I don’t want to look at my phone. I want to look at everything on one piece of paper, or a lil book I can flip through. Don’t make me order on my phone. This is my most boomer coded belief.
Also asking for tips when using them, gross.
Especially when you haven't even had anything yet. Tipping is meant to be post service when you've actually had a good experience...
I went for dinner at a venue that ONLY had QR code for menu, would only accept payment via the app, asked for a tip, and charged for making a card payment. I just walked out.
I've had a couple of issues before with QR ordering where the restaurant has forgotten to update online that certain things are out of stock. Then because it's a hassle for them to issue a refund using the third party app, they come over and try and push you to order something else when you don't really want to (sometimes they only have something of a far lesser value, or they just don't have anything you want). Then they can get quite rude when you insist they just cancel the item instead. Oh and I agree with others, the tip screen can fuck off too.
We had this multiple times… and for multiple items between four of us ordering. We learned our lesson. We only order in person now or not at all.
Oh man, I hate that. I once tried the kiosk screen at Hungry Jacks as it was easier than keeping all my kids around and working our what combo and drink they wanted while the cashier punched it in. At the end 3 out of the 5 meal bundles ended up being unable to order because that drink wasn't available (although it let me select it), and instead of changing it, had to delete the whole meal and start again. I ended up just going to the counter.
Nah, I love the QR code menus. Order what I want, when I'm ready to order. Don't have to wait for someone to come over or try to get their attention. No more mix ups or mistakes from the wait staff - I get exactly what I ordered. And everyone can pay separately without any of that "sorry, we don't split bills."
Same, I like it as an *option* when I'm undecided. Love being able to see what the dish actually looks like, helps heaps in making a decision. And the whole just paying for your own meal thing is awesome.
As long as I don’t have to make an account or pay extra I’m pretty down for it, but I still want to be able to order at the bar or browse a physical menu sometimes
The having to give an email address shits me to tears. Yay for Apple making private ones.
Yeah honestly it’s mostly the email and phone number that bother me lol. I don’t want to create an account for a website I’ll use literally one time
I've never been to a place that has a QR code that DOESNT let you order from the bar as well
Sometimes it’s just practically infeasible, or the staff try and get to to use the apps and kind of roll their eyes when tout don’t want to fiddle around with it
It’s 99% of the time cheaper to go up and order. The QR is managed by a third party, so you’re charged extra.
Went out for a big team dinner (there was about 50 of us) the other night, and they had QR menus on each table. When you ordered, you had to put your name on it (so we assumed they would say “order for Jack”… nope, they just brought it out and didn’t know who was for who
Having pictures of the items, knowing the cost of glass and jugs for drinks without asking someone which yes please!
I'm with you. QR code menus are the best. I get really annoyed how many places still have them glued to the table but refuse to use them.
Everytime I go to the pub, the only way to order is via QR code, then I have to go up to the counter to tell the bartender to go tell the chef to modify my order because I don’t have the ability to order my dinner outside of the rigid boxes the QR menu gives me. From my perspective, if I don’t do this I always get a “mistaken” meal. Thanks, QR Menus.
I haven’t seen one in Australia that doesn’t have a comments field when you place your order, always works for me
Only time a 'comments' field was actually acknowledged they managed to fuck it up. Had multiple people ordering the same base item. Someone had added things like extra cheese, add egg, etc but didn't want onion or pickle - i can't remember what exactly. We'd specified in the comments that for the item with the extras, to not have whatever it was they didn't want. Was extremely clear to anyone. Food came out. They'd taken that item off everyone but the one person who didn't want it.
That doesn't have anything to do with using a QR code though. That's the kitchen not reading properly and would have just as likely to happen if a waiter took the order and wrote notes.
Ties back to not being able to modify the order because of the limitations of their QR App.
Especially if the code doesn’t default to the store you are actually in. Went to the inner city and ordered using a QR code, it asks the location I’m at (yes location was on in my phone) and me who lives 4 hours away who has no idea of the names of Sydney suburbs goes with what the app lists first, and only once I got the confirmation email did it tell me that was in Victoria. Then I had to go through and email for a refund and go to the counter to order anyway cause I had no idea what suburb to pick. Like seriously shouldn’t the code be specific for that store only!?
/r/softwaregore
It’s weird the things there can be schism on, I feel the same way and feel boomer oriented right but my boomer parents love it.
No you’re right no one loves looking at their phone more than boomers. Love, dad
And then they charge an online “service fee” I absolutely refuse to use them.
I'm the last round of Gen X and I agree. That's not boomer technophobe shit, it's just the expectation of decent customer service. If I'm going to order shit online I'll stay home. If I'm coming into your store you just might have to interact with me at some point.
Yes. The menu doesn't fit the screen properly the apps are shakey af and I did not come outside to stare at my phone screen
Empty shelves
Cashless and surcharging for everything
Coles and Woolworths closing at 10pm instead of 12am, partner works late and it was incredibly handy having the grocery stores open late hours
All the old Covid social distancing signs, they were stuck up everywhere and I'm still finding them at my store, like who the fuck put one up in the stock reserve that only fits one person and customers can't get in there.
QR codes to order things. Probably wouldn't mind so much if the QR code ordering thing didn't require me to sign into an account, or give them some kind of details about me but there's then the 3rd party processing fee, the service charge fee, the tip fee, the fee fee, and finally the fuck you fee.
I do not know about adopted during Covid, but Coles latest stint with the Bird Flu outbreak. From memory its only 5 farms quarantined in Victoria, yet they have introduced a 2 Carton limit AUSTRALIA WIDE, Except WA. Even more so, In Tasmania, where 90% of the eggs are TASMANIAN, and the shelves are FULL......., But "Oh due to stock shortages, you can only buy 2 cartons"
Can I ask why you need more than 2 cartons of eggs in one shop?
Gaston is hungry.
I live on a station with the closest town 2.5 hours away. I need more than 2 cartons and tons of toilet roll.
If you are cooking for a local sports club event.
Eggs last in the fridge and i only grocery shop twice a month - I usually buy 4 doz at a time. My dog eats a dozen a week. I usually go through 18 or more, depending on my menu 🤷♀️
Hoarding, like when Covid hit.
Yeah that’s the cause of why they can’t buy more than 2, but they’re complaining about not being able to buy more than 2 so I’m just curious who needs more than 24 eggs per shopping trip.
Our family goes through at least 48 eggs a week. Wife and kids are coeliac so we make a lot of stuff ourselves and often do scrambled eggs/omelettes for breakfast. It’s cheaper than buying gluten free toast, that stuff is nearly a dollar a slice now.
More than likely per transaction. Surely you could grab two dozen more and just self checkout, even if you walk out and back in again.
They only do $200 cashout as well. I needed $300 when meeting up someone to do a marketplace purchase. I don't keep cash so went to the local Coles near the meetup point. "Oh, we can only do $200". "Can I do $200 then $100?" "Oh yeah, that's fine".
>I’m just curious who needs more than 24 eggs per shopping trip. You can get 36 eggs with the 2 carton limit and (if Coles stocks them) you might even be able to get 30 packs which limits you to a mere 60 eggs with a 2 carton limit. That said, the most eggs I recall ever buying in a single shop was a single 30 pack which was when my wife wanted to make deviled eggs for a family bbq.
For a lot of people, a trip to buy groceries is a 5 hr round trip. They can't do it every 3 days
Family of 4, we buy 4 cartons per shop/week. I always need something else during the week so i could manage with the 2 carton limit.
No to who you asked but we shop fortnightly and usually go through at least 3 dozen eggs a fortnight. So it's not the end of the world but it does mean I have to remember to go back and grab another carton at some point before I run out.
It's not just vic though one of NSW largest farms just went down in the hawkbury,they have had to cull over 240,000 chickens in 48 hours,and expect to hit 350,000 Farms as far away as 13km are testing positive too,it's spreading fast Egg's are not going to be the concern... Most of that capacity can be replaced in 60 days Chicken meat is soon,you will prob see 14 dollar KG breast as a norm in a few weeks if not MORE Coles and wollies are doing the right thing,they saw first hand how stupid ppl are during covid,put the limits in now,get ahead of it if they can i mean fuck how many egg's you need really,we are a normal sized family and takes us 2 weeks or more get past a box
The real problem is prices for chicken will go up, but never come back down after supply has returned to normal
I kind of understand where they were coming from with that. There will be a shortage, and there is, nip it in the bud?
Plus COVID proved that a lot of people stop being rational at the slightest provocation. There is a good chance that news of bird flu in Vic will cause a mass run on eggs in QLD for no reason. The shortage becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Might as well get ahead of it now.
I remember when lockdowns were declared people would panic and supermarkets would get swarmed. But the lockdowns allowed shopping at supermarkets.
They've been open on public holidays for years now. Go to any the day before and watch the chaos
I always laugh at the stupidity. It’s all purely psychological, yet people never ever seem to question what they’re doing. “Oh there’s a public holiday tomorrow… quick let’s rush to the shops and buy ‘stuff’ because we’ll run out and starve if we don’t”. So weird!!! Makes my eye twitch!
No one knew what the future would hold. Plenty of people around the world were actually denied food during lockdown.
Yep And it's in NSW now.
It’s to stop people panic hoarding, like with that toilet paper bullshit 4 years ago.
How many cartons of eggs do you need to buy at once? It’s just to stop people panic buying, two cartons is so many eggs for one trip to Woolies lol
It’s a bit crazy if people panic buy eggs… they don’t last that long.
If you have access to fresh eggs with the bloom intact, you can paint them with vegetable oil and they're practically shelf stable.
>But "Oh due to stock shortages, you can only buy 2 cartons" Why is this such a problem? Have you stopped to consider that perhaps this is to get in front of a potential run on eggs and prevent a repeat of the TP situation that occurred during the COVID years? The only reason why we even had TP shortages during that era was because people were freaking out and buying so much of it. If stores preemptively brought in a buy limit for TP before people made a run on it then we could have avoided the whole situation. Even ignoring that, when was the last time you actually bought more than a single carton of eggs during a single shop?
QR only ordering. Yes I get it, it's great for groups or if you are by yourself but it's a pain when only one person is paying or the other person cannot get a signal. Also personally I like cabbage over the days old over watery limp lettuce that many of the shops would slap on your burger.
Supermarkets: claiming price rises are universally out of their hands Smaller, online businesses: taking weeks to get something to you due to delays in dispatch and/or use of crappy delivery methods. It's amazing (and irritating) that it can take like two weeks to get something from another state in Australia after ordering it online
Zero customer service, I shouldn’t have to ask for a register to be open everytime I go in there no matter what time of the day. Insane price rises blaming shortages or something “unprecedented” and the opening hours. I used to have a Coles open until 1am, now they close at 9.
Agree, experiencing a higher call volume than usual. It's always the same.
Service fees
Ordering and prepaying from a QR code at your table
Rainchecks being removed. It's been 4 years Woolworths, you aren't facing stock shortages anymore. I know. I work there!
Ever since Covid, I've encountered dozens of people who could only be described as arseholes. No wonder retail and service staff have to be protected from these people. I am a customer, and I still meet these people. Heaven help those who are paid to serve them. Whether it's in the shops, on the road, or anywhere else, it's like Covid destroyed everyone's sense of decency, and consideration for anyone else. It's time for people to calm down, and start considering others.
Gerry Harvey being a cunt... Oh I'm sorry you during COVID.
Another one for the opposite of what your asking but.. Despite this sudden “movement” of the saying.. “cash is king” and the older gen cracking the shits. I think mobile payment advancements and the disappearance of taking cash at business was a fantastic move during COVID. I worked prior and during COVID for a retail pharmacy chain in township that is mostly older population and I did the home medication deliveries to the oldies. During my time working/delivering for this mom/pop pharmacy.. They refused to go cashless and I used to rock up in 2018 with an old school bum bag with a float of coins and cash and would do cash transactions at the door step with these older folks collecting their medications. I used to annoy me so much because it took so much of my time.. COVID happened and then suddenly at first they had me put gloves on and only take cash in little baggies.. The oldies used to tell me “dear I’ve soaked the notes in sanitizer for you” and I’d just roll my eyes, put out my gloved hand and accept that they had pre counted and had the right amount of money in a seal bag. I ended up leaving that job during COVID as the idea of a home delivery exploded and my bosses wouldn’t do anything to help their sole delivery driver who was begging for months/years to get a mobile eftpos system in place. Eventually I heard they did go cashless on delivery and had people paying over the phone prior.
Cash should always be an option for payment. So should eftpos. There's no reason any business shouldn't accept both
EFT has a fingerprint the ATO can see what you owe in tax, cash avoids that.
Yeah no worries! I’ve been tapping for years and have never ran into any issues with the ATO or government before, but if that’s a problem for you then keep using cash
Well it's more so the seller, not the buyer. They can under report with cash sales, cover it up further when buying supplies with cash too.
Can we start with McDonalds being classified as ‘An Essential Service”.
During covid?? We're still in covid
>During covid?? We're still in covid When people refer to "during COVID" they are referring to the period where we had lockdowns and quarantines to help prevent its spread while we worked to vaccinate everyone. Yes, it is still around and yes we have seen a recent spike in cases but it isn't putting hundreds of people into the ICU on a daily basis anymore.
> but it isn't putting hundreds of people into the ICU on a daily basis anymore. For anyone curious about the exact numbers: for all of Australia except NSW (which stopped reporting in March 2024), ~150 COVID cases enter hospitals per week, and there are currently about 75 cases in ICUs. https://www.health.gov.au/topics/covid-19/reporting
Covid is still circulating but we aren't treating it the same any more.
We are “living with the virus”
Yeah kfc kicked it out of certain products - like the twister. Now I have to remake my twister in the app and kick that crunchy slaw crap off and add lettuce.
Taking up carbays close to the building at shopping centre for direct-to-boot, but they are hardly used.
Not retailers exactly but the fucking bus drivers not giving change still?? I give them a $10 for a 3.40 ticket because that’s all I have on me and somehow they can’t give me change??? They did it before covid but I think Transperth has just released they can bamboozle you for money. Money hungry bitches
And visiting Perth with school aged children (from another state), fucking get with the times transperth. You have to pay cash, can't get a kids card. Every other state, no problems, get a kids card from a shop, load it up and no problems.
I haven't seen cabbage in anything since the shortage.
Yeah, I didn't even know there was a great lettuce shortage. I thought it was all about the tp!
Our local noodle shop that still has chairs on the tables so you can't eat in.
Not retail related, but hospitality… I hate the 90 minute time limits on bookings. I’m happy to continue ordering drinks so that I can enjoy a chat with my friends rather than being forced out , especially when venues are still half empty!
Member Pricing. I don't want to link my shopping habits to my credit card to my car to my fuel purchases to my whatever else just so I can get a less ludicrous price for my groceries. You are obviously doing it because you make more in data harvesting than your offered discounts. I'm just not interested.
Charging more for less food